Huh? What’s an overdraft?
Ah, that horrible unsettling feeling when it’s time to check my bank account balance. It’s always right before I have an urge to spend an exorbitant of money on something that I really don’t need. There is something incredibly ironic about how out of my control, something that really is in my control, feels. There just always seems to be this unlucky unbalance in the money-in-money-out equation.
Lately, it probably seems like I’ve hit some sort of lottery with the way that I’ve been spending. In my head, when I am not spending $20 for a shot (and let’s be honest, it’s very rarely just one), I really do think that I’m saving a lot. The reality of the situation has been a bit of a slap across the face for me, as I recently discovered. Instead of being behind, most of the zeros were in front of the number that I was hoping to see. Sitting at home, I usually have about 5 different tabs open labeled “Shopping Cart” and while writing this, I’m fully prepared for a new batch of emails to arrive in my Promotions tab on Gmail. I’m just waiting for the day that I enter my apartment to see a huge banner with the word ‘INTERVENTION’ hanging above it. I mean, there was really no dire requirement to buy a Nespresso milk frother for 50 bucks. Apparently the return policy after you use it twice isn’t the best.
Pre-pandemic, I used to get very caught up in social situations and often found myself spending an entire month’s “fun budget” in just one night while going with the “flow of things”. The next day, I’d find myself feeling guilty spending on my usual order at Mickey D’s. If only there was some way for my brain to remember those zeroes at that moment at the bar, but then again, it’s just easier to blame that one shot I had.
Discussing money always makes me super uncomfortable. I somehow always turn out to be the person in the group who is the least responsible with her money. The idea that a penny saved is a penny earned? Those pennies spent seem to add up a lot quicker than the pennies saved. I genuinely believe money does buy happiness. I mean, my smile is definitely going to be one centimeter wider if I have that snazzy jacket I’ve been eyeing.
